Zanelli Releases MultiPageImporter for Importing both PDF and INDD Files
Well, it’s time yet again for another episode of “cool (and free!) scripts that can save you bundles of time and energy.” At the beginning of the year, I wrote a post about Scott Zanelli’s PDFplacer script, which places each page of a PDF on to a different page of your InDesign document. That’s pretty cool, but within an hour, someone replied asking for more: The ability to import InDesign documents in the same way… then other folks asked for more features, too.
Scott, recently graduated and with too much time on his hands, complied. The new (CS3-only) version of the script works with both PDF and INDD files. It’s also renamed MultiPageImporter. You can download it by clicking on this link. Note that after all the bru-ha-ha last time about .zip files, I’ve renamed this to “MultiPageImporter.CHANGE_this_to_only_zip”. Obviously, you need to change the file name to “MultiPageImporter.zip” before expanding it. There are detailed instructions in the folder.
Here’s a screen capture of the import dialog box:
But here’s my question: Why do you want to import all the pages of one InDesign document into another? How are you using this script to make your life easier? Just curious.
Last week there was a post on the U2U forum from someone who had created a six panel brochure as individual pages and then tried to move them into spreads.
Every page had items bleeding off the edge. Of course, once they were in spreads those items bled into the other pages.
The best suggestion I could come up with was to create a new file with the spreads and then place the entire InDesign document page by page into it.
Another use would be for calendars where you could do the entire vertical spread as single pages and then place into a new file for imposition.
I had 30 book covers to create, then they needed to go into our publications catalogue. It was only 30 indesign pages to import to each page, it didn’t take long, but this script would have it done in no time.
i install it,but when runnning the script it always pops up a nag screen saying ‘The “Verdana” font is required but not installed. The script cannot run unless it is installed. Quitting…’
i do have a verdana font installed,so i am open for any suggestion?!
oh,im using mac osx 10.4.11, and indesign cs2 version 4.0.5
To answer David’s question…
I produce two newspapers, and their respective printers call for PDFs produced to fit the image area of their output templates — which is to say, cropped to the edges of the inner margins.
Not wanting to design pages that way, I have kept the document with the proper margins.
With one paper, I use the AdobePDF driver to set up a custom page size that outputs the PDFs to their trim requirements, since InDesign’s PDF Export offers no controls for adjusting the size of the page.
With the other paper, a tabloid with many more pages than the first, I’ve recently experimented with creating another document, sized to the trim, importing the original InDesign document, and then using InDesign’s export features.
This script looks like a promising way to automate some of the drudgery there, and I deeply appreciate and admire Scott’s efforts.
i think the anwser was not intended for me,but thanx anyway:)
-i’ve opened script and as i find,it’s only for CS3,so it’ my bad for not noticing/not working.
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to all on this site - keep on the good work.
I work at a company that designs grammar school textbooks. Every page of the student edition gets reduced and placed in the teacher’s edition. In some books that can be over a thousand pages. I’m eager to try this script.
Dumb question, but is there anyway to do this with images? We often import 60-80 images into a templated layout and want each image on its own page, centered on the page. Loading all the images into the cursor was a great workflow enhancement with CS3, but we still have to click on the page for each image, navigate the next page, click again — 80 times. I like the idea of this script, but is there a similar workflow for simple PSD or JPG images?
Brooks
@Brooks: Interesting idea, but your need is a little different. The script takes a single multi-page file and splits it up… You want to take a bunch of independent files and place them. One idea, though: Use Acrobat Pro to merge all the images together into a single PDF (using File > Combine Files) and then use this script to make the InDesign file out of that PDF file.
Brooks,
The ImageCatalog script which comes with inDesign can do what you want. Another option is the Bridge Contact Sheet script.
To answer David Blatner’s question:
I work at a Chicago company that publishes newspapers in different neighborhoods, and a few of our sections are shared. Once the shared sections are laid out, they need to be placed onto the correct pages for each paper. We’re currently using Layout Zone and snippets, but these methods can’t deal with text that jumps to another spread. You lose your automated next page/previous page jump lines, and the text frames are no longer linked. As a work around, I’ve been grouping the jump page elements and dragging it onto the workspace of the opening page, and then I’m able to select all elements of the layout when exporting, retaining my jumps. If this script solves these issues, it’ll be awesome cause it’ll eliminate workflow steps and avoid the additional files produced when exporting shared versions.
One little options that is missing in that marvelous script and also in the native place command in Indesign, is the ability to place in “Reverse Order” and “Rotate 180 degree”. This could help a lot when trying to build document that shall be printed “tumbled” or “head-to-tail”. Meaning half a book is printed one way, and the other half the other way when the book is flipped upside down.
I installed this on my PC at work, and it sometimes gives me the annoying error message of “error:this would cause one or more objects to leave the pasteboard,” and doesn’t work. I’m importing the same test file into different files, and it sometimes works, and sometimes doesn’t. Oddly enough, it doesn’t work when I try to place the test file onto a document made from the same template as the the test file, but it does work when I place it onto a file made from a completely different template. Any ideas?
I hate that pasteboard error. I’ve gotten that error in other situations for no explicable reason, and so have my collegeauges. We all hate it because we’ve never been able to understand why it happens.
We publish 100 page books that are produced as seperate spreads at a time so that we can have various files out to various dept stages. In the end, I end up opening 50 IN design docs one at a time and saving out two single PDFs that need to be renamed page 1 and 2 for example. IS there an automated way to drop my Indesign docs on a droplet that will automatically open and write the two pDFs automatically?
I have been asked to recreate two books that are now out of print. One is 2000 pages and the other is 1000 pages.
I’ve been asked to scan the pages and drop them page by page into a new document.
What is the best way for me to achieve this?
Thanks for this, it saves us bundles of time
Does anyone know a way to batch import images into Indesign, each one in a different page ?
The same ideal as zanelli’s script, but for a folder of images (JPEG, TIFF, PSD etc) instead of PDF/INDD files.